Movie review: Fright night: ‘Halloween’ will be a screaming success

Dana Barbuto More Content Now

Thursday

Oct 18, 2018 at 8:36 AMOct 18, 2018 at 8:36 AM

Lock up the babysitters. Hide the cutlery. The “Halloween” reboot is here, and Michael Myers, the iconic masked boogeyman, is back and thirstier than ever for blood. Faster than you can say “boo,” Myers — aka The Shape — is on a rampage, racking up double-digit kills. No one is safe, especially Laurie Strode, the lone surviving teen from the original. Her estranged daughter and granddaughter are in danger, too. Cue the chilling score. Grab some popcorn. It’s on.

This script, by Danny McBride (“Vice Principals”) and his old college chum, director David Gordon Green, picks up 40 years after John Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic. Thankfully, the filmmakers ignore the nine subsequent franchise entries and construct the new “Halloween” as a direct sequel to the original.

It hits the ground running, as the “pure evil” that is Myers escapes custody during a prison transfer and makes his way back to the sleepy hamlet on Halloween night. “We’re going to have a (expletive) circus on our hands,” says one character. He’s right.

OG scream-queen Jamie Lee Curtis, reprising her iconic role as Laurie, has turned into a reclusive grandmother who knows how to handle assault rifles. She has a strained relationship with her daughter, Karen (Judy Greer), and teenage granddaughter, Allyson, (Andi Matichak). Both think “Grandmother” is nutso. Maybe she is. You might be, too, after witnessing the slaughter of your friends.

A survivalist with a panic room, Laurie has an arsenal of weapons and a heavily guarded house nestled deep in the woods. It’s a fortress with steel grates on the doors and windows. Laurie has been waiting 40 years for Michael’s inevitable return. She’s got unfinished business with the lunatic who ruined her life. Those four decades haven’t been easy for Laurie. She’s been divorced twice and lost custody of Karen when her daughter was 12. “Grandmother” suddenly doesn’t seem so crazy.

The movie wears out its welcome by the time Green gets us to that inevitable last-act vengeance-fueled showdown. I grew numb to the violence: A hammer to the head, a knife through the carotid, snapped necks, a steel-toe boot to the face, some barbed-wire around the neck and an impalement or two. Even though it grows repetitive, the audience I saw the movie with cringed with delight at the squishy sounds of death.

Despite succumbing to the tropes of the horror genre, the movie is a cut above most slasher flicks, even if McBride and Green depend on the original film for their best moments, such as Allyson (bookish like her grandmother) looking out the window of the high school classroom to see Curtis standing in Myers’ old spot. The strongest scene doesn’t even feature the main players. It involves a babysitter (Virginia Gardner), her charge (Jibrail Nantambu) and her boyfriend (Miles Robbins). McBride and Green (“Pineapple Express”) put their comedic background to good use, eliciting chuckles among the chills: “Everyone in my family turns into creepy nutcases this time of year,” says Allyson early on.

Among the other supporting characters are: Haluk Bilginer as Dr. Sartain, a protégé of Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) from the original; Will Patton is officer Hawkins, the cop who is always the first on the scene; and Rhian Rees and Jefferson Hall as investigative podcasters trying to shed new light on Myers’ murders. Carpenter’s lean “Halloween” had all the elements: a maniac in a mask; loads of atmosphere, a simple story, a handful of characters and a haunting score. Green’s “Halloween,” while timely with three women taking down a male predator, is too bloated, with undeveloped characters hanging around for the sole purpose of being fodder for Myers’ gruesome slayings. That’s a plus for jolt junkies, but frustrating for those of us who don’t like unearned twists and turns. I’m looking at you Sartain, but I won’t be a spoiler. Nonetheless, “Halloween” is sure to be a screaming success.

— Dana Barbuto may be reached at dbarbuto@patriotledger.com or follow her on Twitter @dbarbuto_Ledger.

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